1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for measuring the transmission rate and nanoleaks of a gas through a test material. In particular, the invention relates to an apparatus and method for measuring the gas transmission rates of brittle and deformable materials.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mass spectrometers use the difference in mass-to-charge ratio (m/e) of ionized atoms or molecules to separate them from each other. Mass spectrometry is therefore useful for quantitation of atoms or molecules and also for determining chemical and structural information about molecules. The general operation of a mass spectrometer is (i) create gas-phase ions; (ii) separate the ions in space or time based on their mass-to-charge ratio; and (iii) measure the quantity of ions of each mass-to-charge ratio. In general a mass spectrometer consists of an ion source, a mass-selective analyzer, and an ion detector. Because mass spectrometers create and manipulate gas-phase ions, they operate in a high-vacuum system.
The use of a mass spectrometer for measuring gas transmission rates of test materials is known. The necessity of calibrating a mass spectrometer prior to use is also known. In some cases, a mass spectrometer will be “tuned” to measure a particular gas. This results in very precise, accurate measurements of the gas that would otherwise not be possible. Mass spectrometers that are tuned to a particular gas may be used when the gas to be measured is present in very low concentrations or when the test material has a very low gas transmission rate making the gas difficult to measure without a “tuned” mass spectrometer. One drawback of this method, especially when measuring the gas transmission rate of deformable and brittle materials, is that mass spectrometers operate in high-vacuum systems, as noted previously.
When measuring the gas transmission rates of deformable and/or brittle test materials, the exposure of the test material to vacuum conditions may result in false positives, or in other words transmission rates and nanoleaks (caused by flexing of materials) in excess of actual values. Brittle materials are those which manifest fractures upon being subjected to stress without appreciable prior plastic deformation. Deformable materials are those which exhibit alterations in shape, dimensions, thickness, etc., caused by stress and/or expansion or contraction of the material. Consequently for example, when a test material is elastomeric in nature the high-vacuum system of the mass spectrometer may stretch and expand the material to a point that results in an increase in the permeability of the material. As a result gas transmission rates across the test material may be calculated as being higher than the actual transmission rate. Further, if the test material is brittle, as in the case of certain epoxies, direct exposure to high-vacuum conditions may cause the test material to fracture, One method of testing epoxies is to embed them in a metal holding plate. The plate contains machine-drilled holes and the epoxy test material is placed in the holes. The plate is then placed in a gas transmission test chamber similar to that depicted in FIG. 1. The brittle epoxy may fracture and/or delaminate from the metal plate as a result of the high-vacuum conditions in the upper test chamber. This phenomena causes leakage of the test gas through the fractures and around the junctures where delamination occurs, which in turn results in transmission rates in excess of the actual gas transmission rate of the test epoxy material.
It would, therefore, be advantageous to provide a process for measuring the rate of transmission of a gas through deformable and brittle test materials, wherein the measurement process can be very accurately determined and the measurement setup can be readily and conveniently constructed. It would also be an advantage to provide for a process to test the gas transmission rates of deformable materials so that such materials would not be subjected to vacuum conditions that could potentially result in increased permeability due to the expansion of the test material. It would also be an advantage to provide for a process to determine the gas transmission rates of brittle materials and materials that may be susceptible to delamination so that the brittle materials would not fracture and the materials susceptible to delamination would not delaminate. It would also be an advantage to provide for a process and apparatus for measuring the transmission rate and nanoleaks of a gas through a test material, e.g. sealed packages, air bladders of athletic shoes, computer hard drives, etc., with the test gas inside, that could easily be adapted to the quality assurance laboratory of a manufacturing plant so that data could be collected from production samples to assess quality assurance parameters. The present invention accomplishes this purpose to great advantage and provides a significant advance in the arts.